The Swadesh List is a list of base words that can be used for historical compartive linguistics. It allows one to very quickly get up and running when delving into two different languages’ pasts. Sounds nice, doesn’t it? Not very useful for modern languages, though. Knowing how to say “hair”, “moon”, “earth” etc. is of little use when trying to order a beer in a pub in Bangkok or Moscow. My goal here is to develop a list of phrases that once learned in the target language will allow you to get up and running as quickly as possible. Obviously, if a decent level of proficiency is desired, this can be used as a jumping off point months in advance of a journey. However, it’s also meant to be used on a plane or bus hours or minutes before getting to your destination by turning and asking your neighbor.

The end goal is to have a list of sentences that include common words that are hard to ask about (e.g. how, why, when), common sentence structures (I would like...), how to describe things (I want the thing you put the water in), and most importantly, how to tell people that you are still a learner. With these sentences, you should also be able to get an introduction to the basic grammar you need to make sentences on the fly. Sure, it’d be cool if you knew how and when to use the vocative case in Scottish Gaelic, but it’s really not that important relative to being able to order uisge beatha.